I'm deep in the editing forest. Or should I say one of my characters is lost, deep in the forest and I'm on the journey with her, feeling her fear as she stumbles around, lost in forest.

As alien landscapes go, this forest looked mighty alien to me. I hate that there is no grass under these trees, and that as far as the eye can see you are surrounded by these ghostly gums. Getting disoriented is only a matter of time...

I'm a regular blood donor, and this week is National Blood Donor Week. Today was my 66th donation and so I'm almost to 2/3 of my goal of 100 donations in my life time. Where else do you get a medical check, the ability to lie down for an hour and read a book ( The Diabolical Miss Hyde by Viola Carr ), then be fed.

The blood service is also correct in that the Chocolate Chunk Cookie by the Byron Bay Cookie Company is the Best. Biscuit. Ever. And they are only available at the donor centres.

Rather than sharing a photo of me in the chair, needles or any blood, I thought I'd share a photo from this morning. I walked across Southbank Parklands to the city and for a second, had the bougainvillaea covered arbour all to myself. It was magic.

Disappointment is the gap that occurs when reality doesn't meet your expectations.​Recently we went to the mountains - we wanted cold weather, we wanted to sit around a roaring fire drinking hot chocolate. First up we did our prep work and we had our ducks (firewood) all in a row. The hot chocolate and marshmallows were on standby. Our manuscripts and red pens were ready to go.

Everyone had a picture in their mind how it would be. (Here's mine above)

Then... this happened. We went to load the timber into the fireplace, and look what we found.(Scroll back up and you will see the note in behind the glass.)

Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It reminded me of the submission process for manuscripts - and no-one explains this well to beginner writers. You can do the work, you can do your homework about what lines the publisher is interested in, you can write the best book you can write, and when you submit, it isn't what the publisher is looking for. Or what that person, at that publisher, on that day is looking for, to quote my favourite editor of all time.

It doesn't make it a bad book. It just means it isn't the book for them. It's ok to be disappointed, so long as you get back up, review that manuscript and send it out to someone else.

Of course, our disappointment over the fireplace was short lived. It wasn't that cold, I had a sensational hand-knit scarf keeping my neck warm and we still had hot chocolate. However we're hopeful the repairs will be done by the next time we visit.​

Imagine its five years into the future, and for whatever reason, you haven't seen the writers in your writing group for five whole years - no contact at all. Your reunion is on 13th May 2021. Tell them how your career/life is progressing.

The first time I did this, at my writing group's annual retreat, it was an incredibly powerful experience. I took all the manuscripts I'd done work on and a few ideas from my ideas file, decided who my publisher would be, made covers for those books, and arrived at the reunion with "copies" of my books and wearing a ring no-one had seen before - the reward for all my hard work.

And, you know, that was the single most motivational experience of my writing career to date. For the first time, I could "see" my book. Others in the group had retired to write full time, or had dropped their hours to work on their writing. There were trips to Tuscany, life-changing adventures and a whole heap of other dreams and aspirations.

You know what? Everyone in our group who visualised publication that night, has achieved it. What started as a bit of fun ended up being a very potent goal setting tool.

​The next visualised reunion is May 13th 2021. What will I have achieved by then?

Did you know that every year:2nd January is Science Fiction Day3rd March is World Book Day18th of April is Columnist's Day1st September is Write a Letter Day7th September is Buy a Book Day15th November is I love to Write Day21st December is Short Story Day

​I often wonder how it is that people know these things. Well, Days of the Year is the key. This website chronicles the weird and wacky celebrations of anything and everything. Like the fact that today is World Garlic Day.

I can't believe its April already. Easter has come and gone and I can honestly say this year I did not overdose on chocolate. Far from it. Instead I filled my weekend away at the farm with walking and fresh air. Oh, and editing. It was great.

We decided, with this monster storm looming, to come back to town early. avoiding the caravan/campertrailer exodus that always follows a big storm. Good decision, as it was a cracker of a storm.

Recently I watched a really interesting TED talk about Procrastination that talked about the results driven Captain (steering my ship) and his not very helpful (and unwanted) offsider, the fun monkey.

The talk gave me a couple of lightbulb moments:

1. This is me... Although on reflection my fun monkey is more of a 10% fun, 90% other things that need doing (like weeding gardens and dusting skirting boards), but despite the best efforts of the Captain, sometimes the fun monkey steers my ship.

2. The difference between procrastinators that do get stuff done and those that don't is a deadline. And again, this is me... In all parts of my life, not just writing. I need more deadlines/timelines.

3. Listening to a TED talk during what could have been writing time - who was in charge there? Probably the fun monkey.

I'm sure you've heard me say it before - I'm a Taphophile - a lover of cemeteries. But the term sounds a little...disturbing, so I went hunting for something a bit less creepy. Here's some I came across:

Tombstone Tourist

Cemetery Lady

Cemetery Hunter

Visiting the City of the Silent

Memory Collector

Tomb Reader

Lots of people ask why???? I love the history, the tributes and the way nature, no matter how hard you try, always wins out. Like the stone above. In 1914, this monument was standing, but over 100 years (and three more burials) later it has fallen and is now being reclaimed.

Here's a few more of my photos from my writing group's visit to Balmoral Cemetery.